To Be Loved

This week over at Our Creative Corner our awesome hostess, Linda Coughlin, gave us a challenge that - at least for me - lived up to its name. We are supposed to find something we've had for a long time but have never used, or haven't used in a good while. The challenge in this for me goes back to my efforts to mostly use Stampin' Up! products on my blog. I struggled with knowing what to do because I just don't have much SU stuff that's old at all, or old and unused. Once I gave myself permission to use some other products, this card came together very quickly.

The whole card started with the papers. I confess, I am a paper hoarder. I have SO much. I'm really trying to make use of what I have, but these Daisy D's papers were sitting around unloved, even though I always thought they were gorgeous. Since I love the fact that SU's products always coordinate, when I use other stuff I find myself figuring out tricky ways to get around not having an ink that matches as well as I'd like. In this case I used American Crafts chestnut embossing powder and Versamark. (The cardstock is by Bazzill.)

I also found some stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms that had been terribly neglected. I stamped the Sophisticated Swirl backgrounder directly onto one of the papers, then embossed it and used it for the background. The sentiment is a stamp that I had to have when I saw it - so why haven't I used it? It's a wonderful quote. I embossed it onto another of the patterned papers and then cut it out with Nestabilities. I created the layers behind the sentiment by cutting out a couple more of the same shape then cutting them apart and fitting them behind the sentiment.

Originally I thought I would stamp an image and maybe color with Copics, but I didn't even get that far. I realized that one of the papers had these gorgeous circles that would look stunning cut out. For the center I used a kiwi kiss button and some skinny satin ribbon that was in my stash. When I put the card together, I did something that I'm not sure I've ever tried before - putting the sentiment under another layer. I didn't plan it out that way - it's just the way the pieces fit together the best, but I love the result. It allows the circle to stand out but somehow features the sentiment at the same time. I decided not to add anything else to my card - and in this case I think that was exactly the right call!

I hope you will dig through your stuff and find something old that calls out to you for this challenge. I enjoyed doing it, once I figured out what I wanted to do! And don't forget to visit the OCC blog to check out what other wonderful creations our team came up with this week.